“Yet, many Whites would be willing to ‘literally die’ rather than support policies that would benefit undeserving minorities.”
— Darren W. Davis and David C. Wilson, Racial Resentment in the Political Mind (2022), p. 14, summarizing Jonathan Metzl’s Dying of Whiteness
Trump’s second term reveals the political form of that bargain.
Manufacturing jobs disappear. Debt rises. Prices climb. War expands. Government capacity is hollowed out.
Yet failure does not necessarily weaken his support because the movement is not primarily judging whether government works.
It is judging whether he dominates the people they resent.
If immigrants are hunted, civil rights weakened, DEI erased, LGBTQ people pushed back and liberal institutions humiliated, material loss can be reinterpreted as sacrifice.
Policy failure becomes cultural victory.
A political movement has developed that rewards the performance of domination more reliably than competent government.
The warning of Dying of Whiteness was never merely that racial resentment could make people vote against their interests. It was that whiteness could be defended so fiercely that shared prosperity, public health and even life itself become acceptable casualties.
Trump’s kiss of death is not only what he destroys.
It is the constituency trained to experience that destruction as proof that he is winning.
No matter where you stand politically, competent government should still matter.
It's always worth questioning whether culture is overshadowing policy.
It's easy for politics to become about identity instead of results.
These topics always spark strong opinions. Appreciate seeing different viewpoints.